Spread The Jam Foundation provides students—especially in underserved communities—with performance-based music programs that support both musical growth and personal development. Research shows that community and jam-style learning builds social connection, cultural understanding, and resilience. Through masterclasses, rehearsals, and outreach events, the foundation carries forward jazz’s mentorship tradition to create equitable opportunities for the next generation of artists.
Impact
2025
Oak Creek High School.
20 jazz band students performed, 130 other high school students and 30 chaperones attended.
“Spread the Jam had everything we try to teach our students - organized materials, active engaging playing, learning in a professional setting, quick and thorough instruction, and a fun laid back vibe. Pair this with the amazing talent and musicianship of Joe and his crew - and it is an extremely memorable experience for students. Joe's formula would work in just about ANY setting. We had every range of student perform including choir students who jumped in with spur of the moment requests in which Joe's professionals easily accompanied and gave real life professional music application! I would recommend this to any student of music of any age!”
— Guy Gregg - Oak Creek High School Band
EDUCATIONAL ALIGNMENT
The anticipated outcomes of participating in our workshop align directly with the NAfME music education standards. Students will strengthen their ensemble performance and improvisation skills; enhance their ability to analyze and reflect on live performances; and build cultural literacy by relating jazz to its role in American music and culture.
How does this workshop align with the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Standards?
MU:Cr1.1.E/MU:Cr1.1.H Generate musical ideas for various purposes and contexts.
~ The students will be generating melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic ideas for improvisation.
MU:Cr2.1.E/MU:Cr2.1.H Select and develop musical ideas for defined purposes and contexts.
~ The students will be developing draft melodies, improvisations, and accompaniment for the pieces performed in the workshop, displaying an understanding of musical characteristics from historical periods of music development. The students are also free to use mp3 recorders or their phones/devices to record and preserve the improvisations.
MU:Cr3.1.E/MU:Cr3.1.H Evaluate and refine their work through openness to new ideas, persistence, and the application of appropriate criteria.
~The students will be evaluating and refining improvisations based on established criteria, and developing their own criteria to further refine their improvisations to develop their own voice. Some questions that could lead the evaluating and refining process could be: Did you follow the chord changes? Were you in time with the rest of the group? Did you rush or drag specific parts or sections?
MU:Pr5.3.E/MU:Pr5.1H Evaluate and refine personal and ensemble performances, individually or in collaboration with others.
~ The students will be evaluating their own personal performances individually. The ensemble performance can be used as an indication of how the person calling the tune relayed the information to the rest of the group. Did the group play the introduction or opening as specified? Was there confusion around who was going to solo when? Did everyone know where the top of the form was when the melody or vocal line came back in? We communicate these things with other players verbally after a song or after a set, depending on how brief and convenient it is to share it. It can be a quick question and answer; “Hey, you missed the entrance to the melody after solos?” A response could be; “I didn't know if you were going to sing it again or wanted us to play the melody.” Both players have now shared their interpretation of the event, and can reflect on the experience of the other in refining their next time on stage.
MU:Pr6.1.E/MU:Pr6.1.H Perform expressively, with appropriate interpretation and technical accuracy, and in a manner appropriate to the audience and context.
~The experienced musicians will be modeling the appropriate interpretation for the learner in a manner appropriate to the audience and context. By the student joining the professional on stage they will be engaged in experiential learning, and receiving critical instruction and guidance through verbal and nonverbal communications utilized by working professionals in the field. The student will be able to view the professionals modeling the skills and behaviors, the “I do” portion from an instructors point of view. The student will be able to practice the skills in real time with the professionals, the “We do” portion from an instructors point of view. The students will then take their new knowledge and try calling a tune on their own to have the band play, the “You do” portion of “I do, We do, You do” instruction technique.
MU:Cr3.2.E/MU:Cr3.2.H Share/Perform final versions of improvisations and compositions, demonstrating technical skills in applying principles of composition/improvisation and originality in developing and organizing musical ideas.
~The students will be sharing improvisations individually, and creating spontaneous complimentary melodies in an ensemble setting that address the identified purpose of developing their skill set in the area of commercial music performance. The students will be applying principles of composition and improvisation to generate organized musical ideas and participating in procedural learning and experiential learning.
MU:Cn10.0.H Demonstrate how interests, knowledge and skills relate to personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.
~The musicians performing the workshop will share personal experiences and how they respond to music. We also can discuss how to create a set list to further explain and demonstrate the rise and fall of intensity or change in moods and emotions through the selections played and how that can curate an engaged audience.
MU:Pr5.1.C Evaluate and refine personal and ensemble performances, individually or in collaboration with others.
~The students will create individual rehearsal plans for the pieces they enjoy playing and develop their expressive and technical performance skills, and identify ways musical performances convey their emotions and intent to the audience.
Benefits of this type of programming
Spread The Jam Foundation
Jazz has always been more than a musical style — it is a way of learning, teaching, and building community. Whether in a concert hall, a high school rehearsal room, or an afternoon jam session, jazz thrives on collaboration, mentorship, and the transfer of musical wisdom across generations. The research is clear: when students encounter professional jazz musicians in live, participatory settings, something transformative happens. Skills sharpen. Confidence builds. A sense of belonging takes root.
The following overview draws on peer-reviewed scholarship in music education, psychology, and public health to document the evidence behind what Spread The Jam Foundation delivers — and why presenting organizations that invest in this model are giving their communities something genuinely remarkable.
Mentorship as a Cornerstone of Jazz Learning
Research consistently confirms that peer and professional mentorship is not incidental to jazz education — it is the engine of it. In a landmark ethnographic study of a successful high school jazz band, Goodrich (2007) found that students learned as much from one another as from adult directors, with mentoring emerging organically across rehearsals, performances, and informal settings outside of class. Five distinct forms of mentorship were identified: adult mentoring, peer mentoring for musicianship, mentoring during rehearsals, mentoring outside rehearsals, and social mentoring.
This pattern holds at every level. Wu, Yao, and Yang (2026), publishing in Frontiers in Psychology, found that peer mentoring in higher music education strengthens self-efficacy, identity, and leadership — outcomes that outlast any single lesson or performance. And a landmark scoping review by Weatherly et al. (2025), analyzing 28 empirical studies across 12 countries, found that informal music learning — the kind of learning that happens between a student and a working professional — consistently fosters autonomy, cooperation, critical thinking, and sustained motivation.
What Spread The Jam Foundation delivers in a masterclass is precisely what this research describes: a team of professional musicians who have navigated the real world of jazz, sitting with students, playing alongside them, guiding them through the unscripted, collaborative nature of the music. That is mentorship at its most potent.
Balancing Formal and Informal Learning
One of the most consistent findings in music education research is that students learn jazz best when formal classroom training is paired with experiential, informal practice. Green (2002, 2008) pioneered research showing that jazz and popular musicians develop their deepest musical skills through aural learning, self-directed exploration, peer collaboration, and real-world performance — not lectures alone.
A 2025 scoping review in the British Journal of Music Education (Weatherly et al.), examining 28 empirical studies conducted between 2006 and 2023, found that informal music learning approaches consistently foster autonomy, cooperation, critical thinking, and sustained motivation in students. Importantly, that same research traces jazz's informal tradition back to its roots — and notes that when jazz moved fully into academic settings, something essential was often left behind.
The Spread The Jam residency model is designed to close that gap. The evening concert is not a supplement to the daytime masterclass — it is the other half of the curriculum. Students don't just learn how jazz works; they watch it happen live, then bring that experience back to their own playing.
Jamming as Pedagogy
The jam session is not extracurricular. It is one of the most sophisticated educational environments jazz has ever produced.
Dr. R. Keith Sawyer — psychologist, creativity researcher, and former jazz pianist — has spent decades studying what happens when improvising groups reach their peak. He calls it "group flow": a collective state of heightened performance and creativity that emerges when skilled players trust each other, listen deeply, and respond in real time. In a study of improvising groups across multiple professional fields, Sawyer (2003, 2006) found that the conditions that produce group flow in jazz — clear shared goals, immediate feedback, equal participation, creative risk — are the same conditions that produce the deepest learning.
For students, participating in a jam session alongside a professional isn't just exciting — it's neurologically and pedagogically significant. They experience musical challenge calibrated to their skill level, receive immediate feedback through the music itself, and develop the ensemble awareness that no worksheet can teach. That is the core of what Spread The Jam's masterclass delivers.
Forbes (2021), studying professional jazz singers' experiences of improvisation, found that flow in a performance context provides musicians with both the freedom to express themselves and a sense of contributing to something beyond themselves — outcomes with lasting effects on artistic identity and motivation.
Community Music and Well-Being
The benefits of live, participatory music programming extend well beyond technical skill. A rigorous 2023 scoping review published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health — analyzing 45 studies across diverse populations and settings — found that community music activities consistently promote social connection, emotional expression, collaborative engagement, and a sense of purpose and accomplishment (Yi & Kim, 2023).
This is not a peripheral finding. In 2019, the World Health Organization published a landmark evidence synthesis drawing on more than 3,000 studies examining the role of the arts in health and well-being. The report confirmed that active participation in music and the arts supports prevention of illness, promotes community cohesion, and improves mental health outcomes across the lifespan — with particular benefits for young people in educational and community settings (Fancourt & Finn, 2019).
When a presenting organization hosts a Spread The Jam residency, they are not just booking a concert. They are investing in an experience that research has shown builds belonging, reduces isolation, and creates the kind of shared cultural memory that communities carry for years.
Preparing Musicians for Lifelong Learning
What unites all of this research is a vision of music education that is holistic, collaborative, and lifelong. Mentoring strengthens ensembles. Informal learning sustains professional growth. Jam sessions cultivate creativity and ensemble intelligence. Community music fosters belonging and emotional resilience.
Spread The Jam Foundation's residency model is built on exactly these pillars. By pairing a daytime masterclass with an evening public concert — both led by a working professional rooted in the living tradition of New Orleans jazz — we offer students something rare: a direct encounter with music as it is actually played, in real time, by someone who lives it.
That is what the research says matters most. And that is what we deliver.
References
Fancourt, D., & Finn, S. (2019). What is the evidence on the role of the arts in improving health and well-being? A scoping review. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe (Health Evidence Network Synthesis Report, No. 67). https://iris.who.int/handle/10665/329834
Forbes, M. (2021). Giving voice to jazz singers' experiences of flow in improvisation. Psychology of Music, 49(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735619899137
Goodrich, A. (2007). Peer mentoring in a high school jazz ensemble. Journal of Research in Music Education, 55(2), 94–114. https://doi.org/10.1177/002242940705500202
Goodrich, A. (2016). Peer mentoring in a university jazz ensemble. Visions of Research in Music Education, 28. https://www-usr.rider.edu/~vrme/v28n1/visions/Goodrich_Mentoring_in_Jazz_Ensemble
Green, L. (2002). How popular musicians learn: A way ahead for music education. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Green, L. (2008). Music, informal learning and the school: A new classroom pedagogy. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Sawyer, R. K. (2003). Group creativity: Music, theater, collaboration. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sawyer, R. K. (2006). Group creativity: Musical performance and collaboration. Psychology of Music, 34(2), 148–165. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735606061850
Weatherly, K. I. C. H., Weatherly, C. A., Chen, Y., & Lau, P. K. (2025). A scoping review of empirical studies on informal music learning. British Journal of Music Education, 42, 46–64. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051724000202
Wu, Z., Yao, C., & Yang, N. (2026). The impact of peer mentoring on leadership and self-efficacy in higher music education: A mixed-methods study. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, 1756556. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1756556
Yi, S. Y., & Kim, A. J. (2023). Implementation and strategies of community music activities for well-being: A scoping review of the literature. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 2606. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032606